


Open Relationship

by Arsenic, arsenicarcher (Arsenic)



Series: 14 Valentines [40]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-13
Updated: 2012-02-13
Packaged: 2020-09-27 05:46:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20402665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsenic/pseuds/Arsenic, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsenic/pseuds/arsenicarcher
Summary: Sophie and Nate have an agreement.  Written for the LGBTQ Women theme of 14v 2012.





	Open Relationship

They had what most people called “an arrangement” but what Sophie thought of as a rational plan. Nate got to be emotionally unavailable three quarters of the time so long as Sophie got to engage in some occasional female, ah, companionship. It worked for both of them, at least most of the time, assuming Nate didn’t take things too far and become distant one hundred percent of the time, and Sophie didn’t get overly emotionally involved with any of her—as Nate called them when he bothered to acknowledge them at all—lady friends.

*

Tara was the easiest, Sophie always felt, not only because they both knew the score with each other, but because Nate, despite himself, trusted Tara. Sophie knew he trusted her as well, the plan would never have worked otherwise, but it was just smoother when Tara was involved, and Nate felt safe all around.

Also, Tara could do things with her legs Sophie was still fairly certain weren’t strictly human. And Tara didn’t ask why Sophie was with Nate. Sophie often thought Tara understood far more than she would have ever admitted.

Tara was always Sophie’s first choice, but Tara couldn’t be there whenever Sophie needed her. More often than not she was on a job, or with her latest boytoy. Tara was her first choice, but definitely not her last.

*

Detective Grayson—Lena—climbed the ranks fast to second choice. She was creative and assertive in bed, and sometimes, every once in a while, Sophie liked giving over, being taken care of. Nate was, if worthwhile, often wearying.

Lena would tell Sophie stories from work, the edited versions, things Lena supposed a reporter would like to hear. Sophie liked listening, got something of an illicit thrill from the legal perspective on things. It reminded her why people like Nate and she were needed, particularly the days when Lena called her, and things were considerably more messy, if only a little more violent.

With Lena, what you saw was what you were getting. She was refreshingly different than _anyone_ of Sophie’s acquaintance in that respect, and Sophie treasured that characteristic, did her best to give Lena as much of herself as possible, as much of herself as Sophie could risk.

Lena was her second choice and the person she trysted with most often, but not so much that either of them might start to feel there was something else there, something bigger. Sophie suspected the temptation wasn’t far away.

*

Maggie was her last choice. It was nothing against Maggie, and they both knew it, but when the two of them were together, Nate was always in the room, and neither of them felt comfortable with that. Nonetheless, it kept happening, the rare, single nights when Maggie would call from a hotel room and say, “I’m in town,” or, “It’s cold in Boston,” or just, “I could use a friend.”

The sex was always like an extension of friendship, like past and present coming together. Sophie often thought she was just a little bit in love with Maggie: her silent survival capabilities, dry sense of humor, and ability to listen. It was a betrayal, but in an odd sense, she thought it was the one betrayal Nate might have understood, if she could have borne telling him.

They didn’t much talk in between visits, although sometimes Sophie found herself calling before she could stop her fingers, and she’d picked up once or twice to hear Maggie’s voice and the words, “I need someone to listen, can you listen?”

Maggie was Sophie’s last choice because she reminded Sophie that love was complicated, multi-dimensional, and what she had with Nate allowed Sophie to explore that just enough to keep her feeling fulfilled.

*

Sophie was pretty sure Parker and Hardison hadn’t noticed; the two of them weren’t precisely brain trusts when it came to relationships, but Eliot had caught on. Sometimes, when she came back—usually from Lena’s—he would make her tea and ask, “Everything all right?”

She would smile and say, “I’ve got everything I need.”


End file.
